Mexico World Cup shirt leaked online ahead of Copa Mundial

In a “Where’s Waldo” sort of situation, FIFA has inadvertently all but slipped up with the Mexico World Cup shirt leaked online ahead of its official release later this summer.

The organization posted a graphic on social media showing players from the entire, now complete, field of 32 nations heading to Qatar this Fall for the tournament. Thirty one of the footballers are shown wearing their current (or in the case of a few teams who’ve already released their new 2022/23 kits, old) uniforms.

Eagled-eyed observers however noted that Mexico player Raúl Jimenez is shown not in the jersey the country wore during qualifying or other recent matches, but instead a new one that mostly matches earlier leaks that have come out.

You can’t sneak anything past internet detectives

The base green color, darker green collar, red shoulder stripes, Adidas 3-stripe logo (but without the familiar “adidas” type underneath) and the new Mexico badge all match pretty much perfectly with what has been seen in previous leaks. All that’s lacking is the detailed tonal geometric texture (which would have been too tricky/small to render for a throwaway social media post):

Mexico World Cup shirt: Our opinion

So what do we make of this design? I’m not sold on the new badge – not that the old one was any good, it wasn’t, but this one seems like something off one of those bootleg shirts they sell at a kiosk in the mall. Perhaps it’s a case of being used to something for so long, for USA fans of course something you love to hate, and the new thing being a shock to the system. Speaking of shock to the system, how weird is it to not have “adidas” written under their logo?

But the shirt design itself is pretty great. If the leaks are believable, the textured pattern is evocative of Aztec art, clothing, and stonework without being too literal. It reminds me a bit of some of Club América‘s recent tops, which have all be terrific. It almost looks like a feather effect as well, which obviously ties in with the eagle on the badge and national flag.

This could go down as a classic Mexico design, a sharp look without being too over the top. We’ll reserve final judgement until we see the official release with better quality images and close ups, but all signs point to a winner for El Tri when they hit the pitch in Qatar later this year.